Whispering Verse

"earthquake?"

The moment his feet began to tremble, Shade thought of the terrible future he might encounter if he encountered an earthquake underground. But then he realized that this was not an earthquake, but the maze itself was shaking.

Observe carefully, you can see that the surrounding walls are moving slowly, some are turning in place, and some are moving closer to the middle. The sound of stone bricks rubbing against the ground is sharp and harsh.

Miss Anat, who was walking at the front, changed her face:

"Someone is manipulating that clerical relic maze candle. We are finally going to meet the Ring Warlock. Come on, come with me. Don't fall behind."

But even if she said this, the maze walls were changing much faster than the three of them expected.

After running a few steps forward, the wall beside him suddenly swung to the side, blocking Miss Bayas, who was walking at the back, behind the wall.

Shade, who heard the sound, was very sensible and did not try to find Miss Bayas behind the wall, but continued to run forward with Miss Anat.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I turned the fork in the road ahead, a blood-red fog surged up:

"It's thaumaturgy!"

Miss Anat shouted, pinching a handful of powder from her pocket with her right hand and throwing it forward. But this had no effect. Instead, several bats with red eyes flew out from the blood mist:

"This is not the thaumaturgy of the silver-eyed man. Detective, step back for now and I will deal with it."

Shade then retreated to the fork in the road behind him, but the walls of the maze were still changing. Shade retreated, but Miss Anat did not retreat. Seeing that the two of them were about to be separated by the premise in front of them:

"Detective, don't follow me, we will act according to the original plan."

She only left these words and rushed into the blood mist in front of her.

Shade wanted to follow, but stopped. The light of the silver moon flew out of his hand, but could not leave any trace on the wall rising in front of him. He tried shouting a few words loudly, but did not get any response from behind the wall.

Shade, who was alone, stood still and listened to the harsh noises coming from everywhere. It took two full minutes for all the walls to stop moving. In the new maze, the three of them dispersed, and the surroundings were silent. Shade's left hand held the gold necklace around his neck tightly, but his face was not panicked:

"Sure enough, we encountered this situation."

The plan made before breaking into the ruins already considered the situation where the three people would be separated for various reasons. Among them, getting lost in the illusion created by the candles in the maze was the most likely situation.

In this case, the policy arranged by Miss Anat and Miss Bayas for Shade was to find a relatively safe place to hide and wait for the two ladies to solve the problem before coming out.

They seemed to think that Shade alone had little strength, so he could just protect himself and not think about doing more. The purpose of Shade's coming is just to help solve the mirror that attacks the "other self". But now that the mirror thing is over, in the two ladies' minds, it would be a good thing for Shade not to face the final battle.

"but now"

He looked at the passage in front of him and took a few steps forward to the fork in the road:

"Where are you going?"

I touched the door pendant on my chest, but now is not a good time to use this:

"Feel it to see if you can find the location of the maze candle."

You can find it, but you can't touch it. The maze formed by this relic is not a real illusion. Otherwise, if someone outside the illusion would just shoot you, you would have died long ago. This approximates an incomplete maze, and the only way to leave is to find the exit of the maze.

"Incomplete mystery lock?"

Shade frowned and thought for a moment:

"Now I'm in trouble. I was attacked just now, why didn't anyone come to attack me?"

He stood there and waited for a while, and then he was sure that there was really no enemy coming to find him.

"Is there really only strangers and silver-eyed people from the Blood Spirit Sect deep in the maze? You think I'm too weak, so you don't want to pay attention to me at all?"

He put his hand on the wall of the maze, but still didn't make any new discoveries. Of course, Shade would not be willing to just wait here, but it was of course even more impossible to use divinity because of the current situation.

You have other options.

"I noticed you used affirmations."

Your mood swings are too small.

It's really nice to have a trustworthy voice to talk to in this alone environment. Although the "other self" is the price of gaining power, it will be entangled with the ring warlock's soul throughout his life. But at least, this means that the ring wizards will never be alone.

Taking a deep breath, the hot and moldy air poured into his nose, and Shade said in his heart:

"Since there is no way to crack the maze, let's think about it in another way. The ruins belong to the mortal cult of the innocent creator, so will the cult leave some conveniences for new cults in the future?"

If you don't have that god's magic, it may not be easy to resonate with each other by calling on the same source of power.

She reminded quietly.

"Yes, there is no magic, but I have last words."

Shade looked around and said softly:

"Toy makers always aspire to create innocence."

Nothing happens.

Shade thought for a while, and the face of Priest August suddenly appeared. The only thing missing in the mysticism of the three major thaumaturgy academies was the content about prayer and divine magic:

"If you want to activate the power of gods, of course you have to rely on prayer." (Note)

As he spoke, he closed his eyes and drew the holy symbol of the innocent creator of the old gods on his chest with his fingers. Shade used the skills he learned from Priest August and prayed softly:

"Toy makers always aspire to create innocence."

The wind blew past his ears, and Shade heard a sigh. When he opened his eyes again, a pure golden butterfly took off from his shoulder and flew into the distance in front of his eyes.

"What elements?"

He stared at the butterfly that seemed to seduce him.

Miracle.

Shade knew his plan had succeeded.

The extinct religious sect would definitely not guess what kind of relics someone would use in the ruins, but this butterfly, which is suspected of leading the way, has the function of guiding the right path.

Shade followed the flying golden butterfly and kept moving forward in the maze. Ten minutes later, a stone wall appeared in front of him, which meant he had reached a dead end. But the butterfly did not stop, but went straight through the wall and disappeared.

"Is this the exit?"

Thinking doubtfully, he touched the necklace around his neck, and then lit the few remaining Bordeaux candles again.

He reached out and touched the wall in front of him. His hand did not go through the wall, but felt the actual obstacle.

Shade was stunned for a moment:

"I see."

He increased his strength, and although the wall did not change, his hand did push open a stone door. After the stone door was opened wide enough, Shade stepped forward, passed through the wall, and entered the next room.

The maze is over. There are no longer walls made of large stone bricks in the new relic room, and there are no other relics blocking the way.

The golden butterfly flew up and down in the darkness, and finally exploded into golden particles of light in front of Shade's eyes, illuminating the small room bit by bit.

Different from all the ruin spaces that I have just experienced, there is only the door that Shade passed through. The size of the space is about the same as the space in front of the original stone door. There are no marks on the wall, but there is a sarcophagus in front of you.

This place should not be accessible by normal means. The sarcophagus has not been tampered with, and it seems that the people from Mercury Blood have not been able to discover this place.

Shade hesitated for a moment, and after confirming that there was nothing but the coffin, he approached the ancient coffin. The sarcophagus is only engraved with the name Joel Ode Caris, and it seems that this is the tomb of one of the last three people left to guard the ruins.

Under normal circumstances, Shade would not mess with other people's coffins, but since it was the golden butterfly that guided him here, he could only go to the coffin to find the answer.

"Feel sorry."

He apologized to the sarcophagus seriously, and then pushed the sliding lid of the coffin. Although no one has touched it for more than a thousand years, the sliding cover can still be easily pushed open.

There were no corpses inside, only an exquisite stone box, a roll of parchment and a silver ring.

"May your soul rest in peace."

Shade said softly that he actually admired the three people who stayed at the end.

Then he picked up the parchment roll and found that it was a letter. The characters used are still the ancient characters on the walls.

The beginning of the letter states that the person who left this letter was Gina Angela Sewell, the last one to die among the three people who stayed at the ruins. She explained that the stone box was the urn of Joel Ode Caris among the three, and hoped that those who came after him would not disturb it, and prayed for her two dead companions in the letter.

Finally, on the yellowed parchment roll, a map of the ruins was drawn, and the locations of the three people's coffins, secret passages, anti-theft mechanisms and some relics were marked, hoping to help those who came after.

Of course, the most important thing is the dangerous relic sealed by the ruins. The parchment calls it the Keeper-level relic corpse tree.

Although it is only the Keeper level, it has the characteristics of spatial movement, large-scale collective hallucination, control of undead, control of life puppets, etc. Once something goes wrong with this relic, it can destroy a city in a short time. But as long as it doesn't "eat" for a long time, its power will decline on its own, so it was suppressed in the ruins by the cult.

The letter did not talk much about the more specific characteristics of the corpse tree, but repeatedly emphasized that those who enter the ruins should not touch the corpse tree. At the same time, once you find abnormal whiskers sprouting from the wounds of your companions, it means that he is infected and must be killed immediately.

The third item placed in the coffin, the silver ring next to the urn, is Karis's relic. It's not a relic with whispering elements, it's a personal relic, it's just an ordinary ring.

Miss Serwell, who left the letter, hoped that those who came after her would not touch the three people's belongings. This was their only wish as guardians.